Spring 2019 - IS 309 D300

Special Topics I (4)

Transitional Justice

Class Number: 7532

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 3 – Apr 8, 2019: Fri, 1:30–5:20 p.m.
    Vancouver

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Specific details of courses to be offered will be published prior to enrolment each term.

COURSE DETAILS:

Transitional justice refers to a broad set of policies and processes aiming to provide redress for legacies of political violence and gross human rights violations. These mechanisms have become central to policy debates regarding conflict resolution, peace-building, and democratization. This seminar critically examines normative and empirical debates over the choices of transitional justice and their consequences for democracy, human rights, conflict resolution, peace, and societal reconciliation, through the comparative study of post-authoritarian and conflict-affected cases.
 
The first part of the course will introduce transitional justice concepts, explore their significance, examine global developments, and engage debates about the politics of memory. In the second part, we will spend several weeks examining specific transitional justice mechanisms, such as amnesties, prosecutions, truth commissions and institutional reforms. The third part will examine: the role of international criminal justice and the “peace versus justice” debate; long-term impacts in historical cases such as post-WWII Germany; and the relevance of transitional justice in contemporary settler democracies.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

The goals of this course are for students to acquire
• a familiarity with major concepts and debates in the scholarly transitional justice literature 
• an ability to critically evaluate their contributions for understanding transitional impacts
• group work and discussion skills
• critical synthesis, writing and presentation skills
 
We will have 13 weekly class sessions, each lasting 3 hours and 50 minutes (including break times), which will consist of short lectures, seminar discussions and group work. Students will regularly write short discussion papers on themes in the readings and very short responses to their peers’ work, participate in discussions, and write and present a final paper comparing transitional justice processes and their impacts. The final two class sessions will be devoted to student presentations and extensive feedback on each presentation by a student discussant and then the entire group.

Grading

  • participation (during all class sessions) 20%
  • 5 discussion papers (500 words each) 30%
  • 5 short responses to discussion papers (100-150 words each) 10%
  • final essay proposal and outline (200-300 words) 5%
  • an oral presentation of the final essay (4-5 minutes) 5%
  • final essay (3500-4000 words) 30%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

There is no textbook to be purchased. All required articles and book chapters will be available through the library and/or Canvas, mostly in electronic format and occasionally on Library Reserves. On average, there will be about 75-90 pages of reading per week. MAIS students may have some additional readings.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS